Just Jube It!

Every year since 1997 I get the nod from the folks running the Manchester United Premier Cup World Finals to show up and shoot this phenomenal U-15 youth soccer tournament. I shoot 64 games in four days, plus three days of team training and activities. I shoot about 12,000 frames. It is hard work, but I love it. I always look forward to the final because I am addicted to the jubilation shot, or the "JUBE shot," as my friend and photographer Sol Neelman calls it (Sol is in Beijing right now and you should check out his blog for a good laugh and some great work of stuff you won't see on TV or in printed media). So this is my favorite shot of the tournament. A team member from the Brazilian team Fluminense "jubes" his team's 2-0 victory over FC Atlas of Mexico. The final game was played at Old Trafford, and for those of you that are not soccer fans, this is a very big deal for these kids to play on such a famous soccer pitch.

If you want to see more photos from the MUPC 2008, here is the link. Be prepared, there are a lot of images.

Life off the Soccer Pitch

Made it back to Portland in one piece, even though when I boarded my flight to Portland from Chicago, the third leg of my itinerary which started in Manchester, England, there were no pilots on board, which resulted in almost a two hour delay. Since my last post, I photographed sixty-four soccer games in four days, plus three days of teams doing training, and touring Old Trafford, where Manchester United plays. The tournament featured twenty teams from around the world. All the players where age fifteen and under. But heck, I am way ahead of myself. What I show you now is how I worked through the first day of jet lag, which comprised of myself walking around the area outside of Manchester city where I was staying, just taking random shots.

This is the soccer pitch outside the Armitage center where all the teams went for meals. The cool thing about this pitch was that is always was occupied in the evening with folks playing either soccer or field hockey. A great place to see locals having a good time.

The soccer pitch lights during a break in the rather deary Manchester summer weather. Yes it rained a lot while I was there. And I thought Portland was rainy.

And they say Americans have big butts. This was a butt disposal bin outside a local bar. Like in California, you can't smoke in bars.

After conquering jet lag, I got to work. Here are a few moments during the job. Above is an Asian tourist posing in front of the Manchester United team picture at the team's Mega Store at Old Trafford. I was following a group of the tournament players touring the famous soccer stadium.

My last day of shooting found me covering the final game of the Manchester United Premier Cup tournament at Old Trafford. After the game I had to go edit pictures in the room where the real photographers hang out prior to and after games. They were all working the game on the picth between Manchester United and Juventas FC. Pictured here are the room's two security guards watching the game between the two teams. Really nice people they were.

Flight Delays

Made it to Heathrow yesterday morning only to have my flight to Manchester canceled. So I had some time to kill. As I was walking around near my departure gate, I noticed a big span of windows looking out to one of the runways and a few kids with their parents hanging out and looking at the passing planes. This was the sort of thing I loved to do as a child when we use to go to the airport in Los Angeles and wait for my grandma from Omaha to arrive. It made for some nice pictures. I even struck up a conversation with the kid's parents and sent thme a few pictures via email. A lovely way to pass the time indeed.

Excuses and Bad Flight Manners_No Pictures

It has been a long time since I last blogged. In fact I have been wondering if I should take this site down due to a very hectic work schedule the last two months and helping out my wife Susan with our fourteen–month-old daughter Leah. So that is my excuse as to why I have had very little time to make any significant additions here. I wonder if anyone reads this anyway. I know one guy who does, and he has been living in Tokyo for the past five years for work, and I ran into to him this morning at the airport in Portland. He was on his way to New York, and I am on my way to Manchester, England, to cover the Manchester United Premier Cup World Finals. Something I do every year. Anyways, we were talking and he said, “You have not posted on your blog for a long time. What's up with that?” So Howard, this is for you, okay it is for me, but I needed an excuse to get me out of my prior excuse. Thanks for getting me back on here. So my goal is now to blog at least once a week. Perhaps on Sundays, after I put my daughter to sleep, and before my wife and I watch 30 Rock on pay-per-view. We both love good comedy. I would do it during the week, but we are always watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from 8-9pm, which is our little nightly ritual that we started when Susan first got pregnant in 2007. We also watch these shows to help us self-medicate ourselves because of how inept our politicians are, and how downright ineffective the media are these days in reporting meaningful news stories. Don’t get me started. In cases like this, where I am traveling for an event or commercial photo shoot, I will try to blog more during the shoot. I promise. And if you do read this blog, please drop in a comment of two, just to let me know that Howard is not alone. So right now I am on my first leg of my trip to the UK. Portland to Chicago. Chicago to London. London to Manchester. Okay a note about airline travel. To all those people in the economy section that move their set backs, please do slow slowly. Pay attention to those of us behind you. The poor guy in the middle seat next to me, seat 7B, a rather stocky guy who looks like he could play linebacker for the Chicago Bears, just had his knees relocated in one second flat by rude passenger 6B. After doing this, 6B then moves his seat back to its upright position, turns around and gives the middle linebacker the evil eye, turns back to the movie screen, which is about the size of my iPhone screen, and proceeds again to make sure seat 7B leaves permanently with his knees embedded into his upper torso. This all done in about two seconds flat. So fellow cattle class fliers, be kind people when flying in economy. Check your review mirrors before moving your seat back. In fact, don’t do it without perhaps asking the person behind you. Remember that objects in your mirror appear father from you than they really are. Thanks for reading. I promise pictures as soon as I can get to my cameras in the overhead compartment, unless of course the contents have shifted, or seat 6C decides to recline my laptop into my sternum. Holy crap! Sear 6C just nailed my laptop and me. Happy flying all!

Start Your Torches

Here is an outtake from a recent editorial assignment. After the art director left, and I packed the lights up, I wanted to shoot a shot with the available light for myself. I just loved this guy's welding glasses.

Milling Around

I was in Bend a few weekends ago to visit one of my oldest friends whose daughter is only seven weeks older than mine. My daughter Leah is now eleven months old. This shot is of the stacks at the Old Mill District in Bend and was taken early in the morning from our hotel balcony. Leah does not sleep well in her portable crib especially in hotels, and I was up most of the night with her sleeping on my chest while I parked myself on the couch. Not a bad way to spend a sleepless night in my book. It is a wonder that I had the energy to pull out the camera and make a snapshot.

Fishing for Godot

Many who know me, know that I am an avid fly fisherman. Perhaps even obsessed about it. Particularly fishing for steelhead. Well, it has been a busy year, so busy that I missed most of the Winter steelheading opportunities that are so close to Portland. For those that don't know much about our area, we have two rivers very close to Portland, the Clackamas and the Sandy Rivers. So I finally made it out on Monday with my good friend and guide extraordinaire, Matt McCrary and his friend Tom. I have been helping Matt with photography for his new web site. By the way, if you want the best fly fishing experience, call Matt. He is the best. You can find him on the web at Action Anglers, or email me and I will get you in touch with him. By the way, we all use spey rods instead of the typical single handed fly fishing techniques. Matt hooked two fish and lost them both. A usual happening when I bring the cameras with me. Tom, hooked and landed one downriver summer steelhead. It was rather wet on Monday, but a fun day on the river. Oh, yes, I did not touch a fish. They say that steelhead are the fish if a thousand casts when you are trying to get them with a fly rod. Hence the "Fishing for Godot" title. Well, I have about 799 casts to go.

Matt McCrary waiting for a grab from Mr. Steelie.

Tom fights the lone fish landed of the day.

Coffee is a must on a cold and wet day. I hope I never see a Starbucks on the banks of the Sandy River.

Matt wading for Godot.

Matt shows off his newly found ornaments for his Christmas tree this year, courtesy of some negligent gear chuckers (okay, us fly fishermen can be a little elitist about our sport, and that is why we sometimes make fun of gear and bait fishermen. Hey when they leave this kind of crap on the river, they make easy targets).